History /
Gorbachev and Poland [63]
Of course, he did - at the expense of his country
Yes,and there was a reason for that.
You sound like Gorbachev's primary mission was to be a great international humanitarian. It was not.
Of course it was not.He had been an ardent Communist,But he saw that Communism was not working.
What you are missing Rich, are two vital points.
The USA under Reagen, massively upped the ante in the Cold War and Gorbachev knew that Russia could not possibly keep up.
The USSR had lost the Cold War.
So he capitulated.
Unfortunately, he had no plan for what to do when Communism was defeated.
He had no idea which way Russia should go.
Then Russia started to lose their East European empire and ordinary Russians turned against him.
Which led us to Putin....younger Russians may have embraced the freedoms he brought in.But older Russians prefer to suffer daily as long as they live in a strong Russia.
Putin kept Russia's economy doing well for many years.
But his invasion of Ukraine was illusory.
The Russian economy is staring to tank and Russian military power is not as strong as was thought and their incompetence, disorganization and lack of morale will kill off Russia for decades.
Gorbachev was half right.
Putin got it completely wrong.
